* The TropeNamer himself, Draco Malfoy. It's easy to forget that there was a time when fans ''did'' see him as the [[SmugSnake smug]], [[FantasticRacism elitist]], [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]], and [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] [[TheBully bully]] who only felt confident behind his burly cronies that he is. Since the movies, however (see below) fans have liked to paint him as a sexy and sensitive guy. He ''does'' get a little better by ''Half-Blood Prince'' and becomes somewhat of a JerkassWoobie, but he's still far from nice, and never canonically lives up to the MrFanservice treatment by his fans. Some fanfics get a little ridiculous, [[CrackPairing pairing Draco with the most unlikely people (Hermione, Ginny, Luna, etc)]]-- or at least, the pairing ''would'' be crack if the fans doing it [[OneTruePairing were not 100% serious]].** This was thoroughly mocked in the ''WebVideo/PotterPuppetPals'' episode "Draco Puppet", where Harry responds to the numerous fan requests to introduce a Puppet Pal Draco. Having established that he's doing this, Harry spends the rest of the video in SarcasmMode as he introduces us to our new puppet friend:--->'''Draco Puppet:''' I'm Draco! I'm really rich, and I'm really proud of the fact that I'm [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything pureblooded white! I mean wizard]]! Tee hee!--->'''Harry:''' Wow, what a wonderful person!** Another slightly subtle example on Draco Malfoy's at times almost saintly status in fanon is this: In the canon, i.e. in the books, Harry always calls him and thinks of him as "Malfoy". Harry almost always thinks of teachers and authority figures (which Malfoy can't exactly be categorized as) using their last names, and the same goes for other people he disdains or feel aloof towards.[[note]]Rubeus Hagrid is the sole exception to this, but ''everyone'' refers to him by his last name, and he becomes a Professor in ''Prisoner of Azkaban''.[[/note]] However, fans - especially the ones that like Malfoy - usually refer to him as "Draco", while they don't refer to, say, Dumbledore as "Albus" quite as often. Needless to say, there's a reason this trope isn't called "Malfoy in Leather Pants".** [[http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm Rowling was actually asked about this sort of trend during an interview.]]--->It amuses me. It honestly amuses me. People have been waxing lyrical [in letters] about Draco Malfoy, and I think that's the only time when it stopped amusing me and started almost worrying me. I'm trying to clearly distinguish between Creator/TomFelton, who is a good looking young boy, and Draco, who, whatever he looks like, is not a nice man. Its a romantic, but unhealthy, and unfortunately all too common delusion of  delusion, there you go  of girls, and you [nods to Melissa] will know this, that they are going to change someone. And that persists through many women's lives, till their death bed, and it is uncomfortable and unhealthy and it actually worried me a little bit, to see young girls swearing undying devotion to this really imperfect character, because there must be an element in there, that "I'd be the one who [changes him]." I mean, I understand the psychology of it, but it is pretty unhealthy. So, a couple of times I have written back, possibly quite sharply, saying [Laughter], "You want to rethink your priorities here."** The DracoInLeatherPants phenomenon is, in fact, so widespread in the fandom that you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who actually ''hates'' Draco. As an example, on ''Literature/HarryPotter'' confession blogs, chances are you ''will'' find more than one confession painting Draco as a "misunderstood" [[TheWoobie woobie]]. It's even reached the comments on his profile on Pottermore!** Interestingly played with in the fic ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'' -- Draco is a genuinely likable boy who just happened to be raised by a [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]-esque Lucius. Harry interacts with him rather differently in his first meeting and instead of the immediate politically charged rivalry, we get a less immediate yet still politically charged kind of alliance. And then later on, when he's an occasional viewpoint character with a fairly sympathetic perspective, you keep running into the fact that he believes Dumbledore to be entirely evil. When his views change and he can finally come out and tell someone about that they think "his father will skin him alive and turn him into trousers."** Draco gets a fairly interesting variation on this in ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors''. Draco is a "secret Christian" at Hogwarts, gets baptized and joins the heroes, and [[WhatTheHellHero objects to the plan to have Ebony sleep with Harry to get his key]], but joins the Prayer Warriors' crusade to exterminate nonbelievers, wants to kill Dumbledore merely for allowing gay sex, and in a later installment, threatens to kill people who don't go along with one of his plans to kill Wawa, the Titan of Water. In short, he's out of character, but interestingly enough, proves to be an even ''worse'' person than in canon despite (or perhaps because) of the author's attempts to make him seem more heroic.** The crossover fanfic ''Fanfic/HarryTano'' amusingly references this with an [[DefectorFromDecadence about-to-defect]] Draco wearing trousers made from Hungarian Horntail Hide. A [[IncrediblyLamePun literal]] Draco in leather pants.** Actually [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10763671/1/Another-Life Another Life]]'', as the story is an AU in which Voldemort wanted to use baby Draco in a dark ritual, his parents refused and were killed for it, and Draco is sent to live with his WhiteSheep relatives, such that he doesn't grow up indoctrinated into pureblood supremacy. Unfortunately, this results in him being severely out-of-character practically as a [[NecessaryWeasel necessity]].** This can be somewhat justified if one takes into account the films. In the first movie alone, Draco smoothly introduces himself to Harry in front of all the first years whereas in the books, he condescendingly chats with Harry in private, only changes his tune when he finds out who Harry is, only confronts him when alone or when Draco feels protected, and gets scared away by the threat of rats. When Harry and Draco are fighting over the Remembrall, movie!Draco is suave and cool, barely considering Harry a threat while in the books, Draco immediately panics when Harry follows him into the air where Harry can see him as [[DirtyCoward the sort who hides behind those stronger than him and runs away]]. Even physically, Tom Felton started off as a cute kid and became a handsome teen but Draco, while never described as unattractive, was also never described as good looking.*** It's also worth noting that the movies skip over or omit a good bit of Draco's antagonistic activities. This leads to him seeming not quite as bad as he simply has less screen time and is less often seen acting as a bully than he is in the books, and his relation with Harry also therefore seems less antagonistic. For example in ''Goblet of Fire'', the "Potter Stinks" pins are turned into a 30 second visual bit with no impact on the plot, and never really tied to Draco himself. In the book it's a year-long harassment campaign Draco is heading against Harry, and their frequency an indicator of how the school feels about Harry's performance in the tournament.** Rowling finally gave Draco a profile on Pottermore, where she admits she does consider him to be somewhat more than a cowardly bully, especially by ''Half-Blood Prince.'' Among other things, she notes that he's a talented [[PsychicBlockDefense Occlumens]] due to his skill at suppressing his own emotions, and he does eventually learn his lesson when he [[HeelRealization realizes that]] [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Dumbledore, Snape, and Harry were most kind to him]]. He probably never becomes a very good person, but he manages to let go of his old prejudices, and eventually brings up his own son far better than his father did him. Not an unlikeable character, but not exactly the sex god antihero.* Creator/JKRowling has [[WordOfGod spoken out]] against people who dare to suggest that [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]] isn't as horrible as she insists he is. Significant parts of Book 6 are meant as {{Take That}}s against those people. For example, he lived in an orphanage, all right (just like ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie), but the most horrible thing in said orphanage was... [[CreepyChild himself]]. He used his magic to bully other kids and was feared both by them and by the staff. It's clear that he was never a good guy.* Averted, even inverted, with Draco's dad, Lucius, whose fans tend to appreciate him for [[http://roflrazzi.cheezburger.com/tag/jason-isaacs/ the aristocratic, pimp cane accessorized bastard that he is]] without giving him the "Awww, he's really just a sexy {{Woobie}}!" treatment. In fact, Lucius provides an easy way for fanfic writers to portray Draco sympathetically. After all, if Lucius is an {{Abusive Parent|s}}, then Draco has a nice FreudianExcuse. And your story has a built-in villain, too! Ironically, in the canon, the fact that Lucius cares about his wife and son seems to be his ''only'' redeeming quality. Also, Lucius had no capacity to influence Draco's becoming a Death Eater one way or another, seeing as he was in Azkaban for the sixth book, which was when that happened. Lucius is hardly Dad of the Year, but neither is he the abusive monster who exists to torture Draco.** You can, however, find, that people who give Lucius this treatment, perhaps influenced by him being a LongHairedPrettyBoy in this movies. He can become a handy FreudianExcuse for evil!Woobie!Draco, but if you claim that Draco isn't a villain ''at all,'' why shouldn't Lucius be awesome and sexy as well? * Bellatrix Lestrange, in one of several ways. The fact that her portrayal in the movies was subject, teeth excluded, to AdaptationalAttractiveness definitely doesn't hurt her chances among her fans--EvilIsCool, EvilIsSexy, OfCorsetsSexy, BeautyEqualsGoodness (even if the "good" has to be dragged out kicking and screaming--this is a fanfic-centered trope), etc.** The "feminist fangirls" who refer to Bellatrix as a "role model" because she [[spoiler: almost kills Ginny and then mocks a very pissed off [[MamaBear Molly Weasley]] upon both that and the death of one of her sons. And then they bash Molly for killing their Bella]]. Never mind that Bellatrix is a {{Yandere}} who only has eyes for a man who doesn't give a damn for her, or that she's openly said that if she had kids, she'd sacrifice them to Voldemort, or that [[spoiler: she was among the Death Eaters that tortured Neville Longbottom's parents into insanity]] -- she's a "super great feminist" for bashing motherhood. UnfortunateImplications, much?** Another approach involves turning her into some kind of Woobie--usually through making her life a TraumaCongaLine, which may include {{Brainwashing}}, RapeAsBackstory, all of the above, or worse. Sometimes, this manifests itself as a FreudianExcuse (especially if ColdBloodedTorture was common in her past) for her existing personality. The previous sections may result in IJustWantToBeFree.** Finally, if a PeggySue is involved (either Bellatrix herself or another character), she may be steered away from the person she becomes in canon. Where it goes from there varies as much as the fanfictions written about her--AntiHero, AntiVillain, MarySue, AuthorAvatar...* Blaise Zabini fans can maybe be forgiven for this tendency. He was a Slytherin boy in Harry's year who, up until ''Half-Blood Prince'', had only ever been mentioned in passing, making him [[OCStandIn prime fodder for fanfic writers]] interested in creating a [[TokenGoodTeammate sympathetic Slytherin character]] ''without'' spitting in the face of canon. Then he was given some character development in the series and revealed to be a buddy of Draco Malfoy's and every bit as bigoted and jerkish as that association suggests, which some people have rather understandably [[FanonDiscontinuity chosen to ignore so as to continue imagining him in whatever mold they originally preferred]], and others have tried to justify.* In 2015, there was a very popular Tumblr post that got picked up by external news sites, proposing: what if, instead of Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts Triwizard champion was Cassius Warrington of Slytherin House, who also entered? The post imagined Warrington as an honourable and upstanding young man, who would help Harry on the Second Task the same way Cedric did, and whose death would ultimately lead to the majority of Slytherin House turning against Voldemort and crying his name as they fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. Since Warrington was basically just a name on a page, without a defined character, people were eager to turn him into the TokenGoodTeammate. However, Warrington's name does pop up again later in the series... as a member of [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Umbridge]]'s Inquisitorial Squad. Oops...* Slytherin House as a whole tend to get this treatment, especially in fics where [[ForWantOfANail Harry and/or Hermione get sorted in Slytherin.]] In some cases, characterizations will remain the status quo and Harry will be the TokenGoodTeammate, but with most, [[FreudianExcuse Freudian Excuses]] get passed around left and right.* Salazar Slytherin had a dream that one day, an adequately racist and motivated student would find the secret underground chamber he built to house a deadly basilisk and use it to mass-murder his Muggle-born classmates. And some fans would have you believe that's just dandy. Now, mind you, this one actually has sound reasoning among the supporters: Salazar lived at least a thousand years before the series takes place, and so conceivably could have been the victim of an in-universe HistoricalVillainUpgrade. It helps that the series implies that he wasn't ''always'' a "twisted old loony". In fact, according to the Sorting Hat, he and Godric Gryffindor [[WeUsedToBeFriends had once been the best of friends.]]** A good example of making him sympathetic without contradicting canon can be found [[http://www.witchfics.org/anna/romanholiday/index.html here]].*** While at the same time throwing not only Draco but Snape into the leather pants (not to mention what happens to [[PossessionSue Hermione]]) all in the first three chapters.** Another (comedic) one had the falling out be over Blood ''Pudding''. After a thousand years, it got twisted into Blood Purity. Turns out Salazar was a jolly fat guy that ate way too much.* Severus Snape gets put in leather pants[[note]][[http://img09.deviantart.net/1043/i/2011/143/d/e/severus_snape_by_starcrossedscientist-d3h2d2m.jpg And has his shirt removed]][[/note]] a ''lot'', often (but not always) by fangirls who want to know him carnally. They tend to ignore the more unpleasant parts of his character  such as joining a gang of aspiring Death Eater students[[note]]Instead, he tends to get imagined as a misunderstood loner, presumably because he happened to be alone when the Marauders jumped him in the "Snape's Worst Memory" flashback[[/note]], and experimenting with the Dark Arts at a disturbingly young age (including inventing the "Sectumsempra" spell, which creates [[BodyHorror slashing wounds that don't close]]). Oh, and they also bash Lily for "not being a good friend" (aka, refusing to become Snape's ExtremeDoormat LoveMartyr), and blame ''her'' for Snape calling her "Mudblood" or even try to justify it and deny its connections to real-world racism. Anything we could say about the Snape-dom can be summed up [[http://zorm.deviantart.com/art/Canon-Vs-Fanon-Snape-34384180 here.]]** There's also a tendency to portray his nastiness as an act to maintain cover or due to manipulation by Dumbledore, which is only at most partially true. There are a lot of changes people make to him in fanon that don't line up with the original works even to extreme degrees. Some that even portray James as the full reason he switched and not Lily, that he loved her but he only either said that to protect her or out of misplaced rage. *** His parents' poor treatment of him is blamed a lot too, despite only being mentioned in passing.** Like Draco, at least part of his popularity can probably be attributed to his depiction in the films, done by the talented, suave and fairly handsome Alan Rickman.*** Also like Draco, the films remove many of Snape's worse moments (such as his threat to poison Neville's toad and his calling Lily a [[FantasticSlur Mudblood]]) and add in scenes designed to make him more sympathetic (such as the scene of him [[spoiler:crying over Lily's corpse]] in ''Deathly Hallows''.)* The [[TrueCompanions Marauders]] get this a lot. Many fans try to rationalize their repeated bullying of Snape. Never mind the fact that from the stories we hear it seemed that they always outnumbered him and that James and Sirius started it. Sirius even tried to get Snape killed once using Remus' werewolf form before James intervened.* Scabior the Snatcher has one tiny role in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows,'' but was portrayed by the attractive actor Nick Moran in the film. The number of women wishing they could trade places with Hermione and have '''their''' hair sniffed by him is growing.** Among his Russian fans, he's considered to be so good-looking that he's normally referred to as Sexy Eater.* Also, Petunia Dursley. Yes, the {{Jerkass}} ResentfulGuardian and StepfordSmiler that abused Harry ever since he went to live with her family, is sometimes shown as a poor victim "bullied" and "insulted" by her "stupid and snobbish" sister Lily, thus she "can't help" but hate Harry and blame him for "[[SinsOfOurFathers Lily's sins]]".* In the case of the Dursleys, both Rowling and the fandom agrees that Vernon is the least sympathetic of the three. Rowling never gives him a FreudianExcuse and fanfics often portray him as pure evil. However, while the fans seem to consider Petunia the most sympathetic Dursley, Rowling seems to consider that to be ''Dudley'', feeling that his actions were the result of bad parenting. Prior to the end of the series, fans guessed that Petunia would eventually apologize to Harry, but, to the surprise of many, it was ''Dudley'' who apologized while Petunia only got an implied IgnoredEpiphany. Dumbledore himself considered Dudley pitiful and called out his parents for raising him the way they did - as a selfish, entitled bully that thought he could get away with anything until he was a teenager.** The in-universe reason for this is sound, but horrifying. In ''Order of the Phoenix'', dementors attacked Harry and Dudley, and afterwards, Harry wondered what Dudley, who had had everything that he had ever wanted for his whole life, could have possibly seen when the dementors drew near. The answer, by WordOfGod: Dudley saw himself. As in, [[HeelRealization he saw that he was an obese, spoiled, and all-around horrible bully.]]* Barty Crouch, Jr. due to being played by Creator/DavidTennant in the movie and having a TragicVillain BackStory in the book. Sometimes he gets paired with characters nearly twenty years younger than him, like Hermione or Luna.* Fenrir Greyback, a cannibalistic werewolf whose ''modus operandi'' is to maul and infect children with lycanthropy in canon, is often portrayed as a big protective dog who's only looking out for the best interests of his clan/mate (often [[CrackPairing Hermione]]).* Marietta Edgecombe gets a bit of this as well. Admittedly, we don't know that much about her, but some fans like to imagine her as a tragic heroine who is torn between loyalty to her family and the DA, and that her punishment is completely unfair. But the fact remains that she also sold out Cho, her best friend, just because her mother ''might'' be fired otherwise. Furthermore, she's shown to not want to be in the DA from the start, only there because Cho practically dragged her to the first meeting. However, in the interest of fairness, Marietta's resistance to joining the group is generally considered one of the points in her favor; while some fans go overboard in defending her, it's generally agreed that given the very real risk involved in joining the DA, it was immoral to force an unwilling participant to sign a magical contract--especially without her even being aware of the contract's existence.* The Death Eaters in general, despite being Magic Nazis, are sometimes considered {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who were simply trying to unify the wizarding world to fight off the inevitable invasion when Muggles discover them. Except there's ''nothing whatsoever'' in the books to suggest that a war would be inevitable even with discovery. In fact, it all but says the war with Voldemort would have gone a lot better if they had just gotten Muggles to help. Plus the DE doesn't actually seem to care about any hypothetical war with the Muggles, except maybe for the one they plan to start and how they want to win it.** [[FantasticRacism Never mind that it's obvious they hate Muggles every bit as much as they do Half-Bloods.]]* The entire ''concept'' of "Blood Status" gets heavily romanticized by fanfic writers into being more in line with Victorian Social Status instead of outright racism like it is in the books. Hilariously (or sadly) enough, this could simultaneously be considered applying this trope to the institution of [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney Victorian]] [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming social]] [[NoSympathy status]] [[KillThePoor itself]].** In general, a surprising number of Fanfic writers seem to interpret pure-bloodedness as a sign of magical superiority, usually as an excuse to reveal that Character X (usually Hermione) was a pureblood all along and promptly give them a [[PossessionSue power boost.]] This kinda goes against the whole "it's complete nonsense made up by racist aristocrats" message that runs through discussions of it in the books. Rowling herself dissuaded this, noting that (bar inherited traits such as Parseltongue, which applies no matter your blood status) purebloods are, if anything, often ''weaker'' than their Muggle-born counterparts due to being severely inbred.* [[PredecessorVillain Gellert Grindelwald]] often gets this due to his OffstageVillainy and his HoYay with Dumbledore. This even extends to his article on [[TheWikiRule the HP wiki]].* Horrifyingly enough, a small but vocal part of the Website/{{Tumblr}} fandom (presumably a subgroup of Bellatrix's "feminist" fangirls) will gladly minimize ''[[TyrantTakesTheHelm DOLORES]] [[SadistTeacher UMBRIDGE'S]]'' crimes, claiming that the only reason she's more hated than Voldemort is because she's a woman in power. Fortunately, seeing as the fandom, the characters and ''the author'' universally despise Umbridge, there are entire essays in response to these fans, explaining in detail exactly why people hate Umbridge more than Voldemort; not because of her gender, but because she's an amalgamation of all the worst authority figures you'll ever meet in your life, and a much more realistic villain than Voldemort. (Also, [[Series/GameOfThrones Joffrey Baratheon, Ramsay Bolton,]] and [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Shou Tucker]] are at least as hated as Umbridge, and they're male.) In fact, Rowling's biography of the woman reveals quite plainly that, like Voldemort, she was rotten to the core from her childhood.** The crack fic ''[[http://imagine.e-fic.com/viewstory.php?sid=728 Ron's Hogwarts]]'' is somewhat successful at [=DILPing=] Umbridge. While she's still [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist,]] [[ObstructiveBureaucrat incompetent,]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking ugly]], she's also tutoring Ron Weasley, who in this story is [[RonTheDeathEater stupid, lazy, immature, and spoiled beyond belief]], [[EpicFail has failed his first year]] ''[[EpicFail three times in a row]],'' [[RonTheDeathEater and is universally hated by the faculty and the entire student body.]] It gets to the point where Umbridge does the impossible and ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness admits that she's wrong.]]''---> I'm the fool woman who thought that your teachers were incompetent and that's why you're repeating the first year for the third time. Instead they're saints for not having beaten you to death for being too stupid to ''[[TooDumbToLive live]]'' years ago.